


Responsibility

by peoriapeoria



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Meta, non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23386930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: Thoughts on the ethics evidenced in Captain America:Civil War and how the Accords intersects with history.
Kudos: 4
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge, Non-Fiction Works:The Meta





	Responsibility

So, I've been thinking about responsibility and how it's presented in Captain  
America:Civil War. Tony hasn't been consistently on an arc in Marvel Cinematic  
Universe. Age of Ultron is a great offender there. The way he latches onto the  
young man killed in the shitstorm of Sovakia and here brought to his attention  
by a distraught mom is entirely too much like a dry drunk. He's wallowing and  
he sets the picture up like a poster child.

Meanwhile we have Wanda in crisis because as a newish superhero, she's failed,  
people have died. Steve, like a good commander is trying to get her past this,  
while dealing with his own failures. One does have to wonder if this suicide  
bomber play wasn't the intended aim of the heist. That street was crowded, and  
if it had gone off on the ground it would have been a terrible reflection on  
the Avengers. That's what terror is about. It's about power, the imposition of  
powerlessness and it writes it in death. HYDRA got their bang without having  
to weaponize the sample.

The Accords is the third leg of this unstable table. The name as The Sovakia  
Accords is clearly opportunistic. Getting something like that through as many  
countries as would be needed means it was already in the pipe before the  
events of Age of Ultron. And why would you create something like that? Steve  
is right to question them being sent somewhere they shouldn't go, or being  
kept from somewhere they should. But the movie picks up where the Accords are  
almost a done deal. Steve is not going to get a chance to sway public will.

Meanwhile, the once James Buchanan Barnes is dealing with the reality of  
having been the Winter Soldier. The movie does jump a bit (or maybe Agents of  
SHIELD dropped an Easter Egg I've not gotten to yet.) so we don't see how  
fallen Howling Commandos Hero was reinscribed as Public Enemy Number One. He's  
been a weapon, and he's trying to keep from being used again.

The kill order. That's almost guaranteed to send Steve off the rails; Steve  
was so close to compromising what he felt was right and sign the Accords. And  
I don't think it's just Bucky. Yes, Bucky is a handle right on Steve's feels.  
But no part of the 'evidence' at that point is more than circumstantial.  
Killing precludes questioning, determining if there are backers, other  
attackers lying in wait. A scapegoat. So even if it hadn't been Bucky, I think  
Steve would have gone off to save them. It is personal, but it's not just  
about Barnes.

Notice that because of the Accords, once Steve knows there are other  
supersoldiers he doesn't have the Avengers to go to. Yes, he gets many of them  
on Team Cap, but much of that capital is expended just getting out of the  
airport. Tony is still reacting when he goes to Siberia. He does listen, but  
it's only because Zemo was using this as bait that a much bigger problem isn't  
faced.

Barnes, for all that Steve states he didn't have a choice, is wrestling with  
his responsibility. He nearly beat his best friend to death. He killed. He  
demolished part of Washington, D.C. This screwed up present was written in the  
deaths he was the agent of. And he's a ticking time bomb. The right words and  
he's a puppet. That's why he's willing to go on ice.

And T'Challa is willing to give Barnes sanctuary and put Wakandan scientists  
on this matter because he owns the way he was played by his need for revenge.  
He is making amends for a very specific wrong, hunting a man wrongly accused.  
Likely, removing the weaponization of Barnes is also in keeping with Wakanda  
not selling technology to the rest of the world.

Tony is left out played by Ross, boxed in by the Accords which he's violated  
and aware of what was in store for Team Cap. And Steve gives him a gift. "I'll  
be back if the chips are really down" and "I stick with my people."


End file.
